I shall now blog

Barbie, Dawn, Michele, Me and Deanna!

The 20-year reunion was a blast! Didn't recognize a lot of the guys - many have followed the age-old tradition of gaining belly and losing hair in your thirties. The girls pretty much looked the same and were much more easily recognizable and I'm not sure if that's good or bad ;-) For the most part, the snotty people I don't care about were still snotty people I don't care about, and the interesting, creative people are still nice. My friends were still my friends and I hung out with several whom I hadn't seen or heard from in 20 years, which was fantastic! We discussed having a drama geek reunion next summer because pretty much none of the male-drama geeks were there and we got to talking about many people in other grades who we'd really like to see again! I hope that happens! It'd be a blast! A lot of people were curious about my career, creative endeavors and why the hell I changed my whole name. I was as patient as I possibly could be as many people called me the "S" word and gently explained my reasons to them, but as usual, my stomach flips every time someone calls me that. I know they don't get it; they might think it's weird, but I'm very happy being called Liz or Elizabeth or Lizzie and I'm very unhappy being called the "S" word. I wish m y dad would get that through his incredibly thick head (you'd think it'd be less thick with no hair on it, but it's not true!

This is Ronda Tworek, my best friend from junior high. She moved away before 9th grade, and we kept in touch for a while, lost touch for a while and have been back in touch for about 5 years now I think. She came to the reunion as my "date" and it was interesting to see how many people recognized her and remembered her (especially when she took her glasses off!) Anyway, I love her to death and am so glad I got to hang with her this weekend!

My family is...

wait for it...

one year older.

Most people don't really change that much, and that's not necessarily a good thing in the case of a few people. If an arsehole thinks you're an arsehole, who cares? If a good person thinks you're an arsehole, you should examine that.

My 3-year old nephew is a naked tornado of a child. Will be interesting to see how he grows up. He doesn't listen to anybody, but I noticed if you look him in the eye and speak kindly to him instead of yelling at him, he listens better.

My 11-year old nephew is a sweet, nice, typical kid who I adore (who refused to smile for the camera). I always enjoy spending time with him.

Their new house. 4 bdr with study, 3 car garage, fireplace, 2nd floor laundry and 1 bedroom apartment (with full kitchen and laundry room) in the basement. $250,000 in Mpls. $1,000,000 in LA with no yard and no basement. They hope to move in by Labor Day (10 months late, but better late than never!) It's a gorgeous house. I'm jealous.

Musings

Why can't html handle apostrophes?

Starting to schedule the fall lessons. Am worried that I can't fit everybody in and some will be squeezed over to weird times and be pissed off about it. Plus, I'm down about 8 students for fall!

And now, the book-writing bit!
Have been editing this new part 1 down - really streamlining it, because I am probably about 2/3 done writing and already have 100,000 words. So even this is too long. I've cut up about 85 pages and managed to scrape off almost 10,000 words though, and I have about 90 pages left to edit, and then to finish it. So, I think the finished product will be between 100,000 and 120,000 words. Slightly longer than most first-time submissions, but much closer to the mark. I also like the way it's turning out. I talk too much; I've always known that, and the streamlining of my expressive voice is making me feel more efficient.

I have to say this version of this half of the story is turning out grittier than the first version. The first version was very romancy, and this is more drama. I hope it works. Not sure yet if I like that yet or not.

The dreaded, but highly anticipated 20 year reunion is next weekend. My best friend (well, one of them) was supposed to go shopping for an outfit with me tonight, but he's MIA. Not surprising, coming from him. I made the mistake of asking him to go with me about 5 days ago, which gave him time to prepare to ditch me if he didn't want to go, or to make other plans, or to forget completely. I should have asked him spur of the moment. Oh well. Maybe I'll go naked and contribute to the "strength in adversity" life lesson we all need to learn on behalf of my fellow classmates. ;-)

Found out that while I'm in Minneapolis next weekend, staying with my brother, they will most likely be moving into their new house. How's that for timing? I hope they aren't expecting me to help them move because I got people to see and places to go and 3 days to do it! I am really excited for them though! They have been trying to get this house since last November, when they were originally supposed to take possession, and it's been one nightmare after another! Finally, the day has come! Yay! And they are very lucky because that house, which they are getting for under $300,000, would be $1.5 million in L.A. and not have much of a yard.

Existential ponderings

Having one of those periods where I'm not sure what I'm doing with my life. Not much, is the answer. Although I am completely aware that this happens every August, when more than half of my schedule cancels due to vacations and camps. I have 35 students and only 15 are going to have their lessons this week. All the free time makes me freak out because I feel so unproductive. Then, like a stoopid hooman, I get LESS productive. Ask me how much I've written this week? No, don't ask. I was being ironical.

Plus, I have a miserable cold, which isn't subsiding much despite the Z-pack Julie gave me (thanks Julie!). I think I have watched more TV this weekend than I have in the last year - the entirety of Season 4 of House (all 14 episodes), Benjamin Button, Drain the Ocean on NatGeo, a couple of older movies (Man in the Iron Mask - Leo sucks in this - ok, Leo sucks in everything but Gilbert Grape), and plan to watch the Joan Rivers Roast tonight. She is the most worthy person on the planet of being roasted, isn't she? I mean, one look at her inspires a landslide of great material!

And this whole weekend of being a couch potato, I have not watched 1 thing with Matthew Macfadyen in it. What the hell is wrong with me?

OK, I really am going to write now.

Rockin & Rollin!

I've been writing all day! Lots of good stuff coming out. I love it when this happens - it makes me feel accomplished and productive, yet smelly because I haven't showered. I usually just go with the flow, but I'm thinking of setting some goal dates and making things more structured.
Nah. I'm too lazy.

I feel some changes of personnel are in order with my students. I have several very good young guitar players who are outgrowing me, and have a brilliant young guitarist friend who should have them. The problem is filling the holes and making sure I still have enough money to live on. I figure I need about 5 new incoming kids to make it happen. Also, I think I'm going to drop the 2 kids with the psycho parents.

August is a bust as usual. So far, I think my students have cancelled about 40% of the month due to camp and vacations. This happened last year too, but fortunately I still have some camp income left to cover the difference. I just don't think it's right that I have to lose up to 50% of my income because it's summer. The rest of the year, our contract sets us up so that the most we can lose due to absences is 25%. Each student is only allowed one excused absence per month - any more than that and they have to pay whatever the reason. In the summer, they're allowed to miss 4 in a row. It really sucks. This is one of the only problems with having a lot of wealthy students. They have no idea what it's like to try to survive on $2,000/month.

My dad wants me to get a webcam so he can see me when he talks to me. He hung up on me when I said I didn't want one. He's such a big baby sometimes.

Spent several hours last weekend and this weekend looking for bridesmaid dresses for my best friend's wedding. Both the other bridesmaids are a size 2 and look good in anything. I look tolerable in one of the dresses. There's a reason I've never been a bridesmaid. Nobody wants an elephant in chiffon to stand up for them. ::sigh::

Booked my flight for my 20 year reunion, which is making me feel increasingly old. I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of people, but I'm not looking forward to having them see me.

Off to write. Yay!